US has been rubbing EU and BRICs noses, since GWB and now The Pasha (Obama!) came to power under Patriot Act.

The revelations of Snowden opened the eyes of Berlin establishment principally because BND (German CIA) was (and is) actually in bed with NSA - collecting German private emails and whatnots thru Google, Facebook, and other American IT providers.

Nye is refusing to acknowledge that this *exceptional* political spying on foreigners is, in fact, allowed NSA by US Patriot Act. However, NSA is legally forbidden to spy on its own citizens, including drone attacks.

US Congress is not at all concerned about spying on foreigners (EU Mission in D.C.), including mainland China, and, if you listen to them on C-Span - it is absolutely transparent how they interpret Patriot Act Sec.215 which allows spying on foreign individuals.

May be also American citizens...!

Talking about American sin, Nye doesn't explain how a sovereign state under international law can morally justify its immoral and outright lies - as exposed by Snowden.

The line between domestic and international in a highly integrated world is increasingly blurred.

A simple fact is that Pakistan has 50 nuclear weapons dispersed across a fractured country deeply penetrated by intensely motivated and skilled terrorists. The damage that could be done by just one of these bombs, or other fissile material, going rogue could be a new Hiroshima.

I think a lot of surveillance is justified, particularly of international communications, in the new world we find ourselves in.

As Guantanamo reminds us, we truly need a way to bring terrorists to federal courts, rules of evidence to deal with the complexities of the situation, and a backdrop of accountability to Congress of surveillance intelligence. To dangerously limit or prohibit some forms of surveillance seems unwise and short-sighted; strengthening accountability is the way forward.

"American policy is not to steal intellectual property…." This is an assertion without prove.

Given the extension of the programs revealed by Snowden's documents so far and the remaining veil of secrecy on the one hand and the conduct of many other countries it seems more plausible (cp. Occam's Razor) to hold the opposite view that the US is actually pursuing its interests in every possible way as well.

It is clear that borders and citizenship do not mean the same as they once did. Citizenship is withdrawn at will and borders mean nothing in the cyber world. The war is not between nation states but between powerful elites. The prize is for who should exploit the powerless. The whistleblowers are the only ones standing with the overwhelming majority of humanity.

At the moment there are two major directions human development is going towards, and the two directions are completely opposite to each other.
On one hand basically the whole world is gripped by paranoid fear. Fear of terrorists, fear of internal conflict due to social inequality, unemployment, debt burden, fear of natural catastrophes, economical, financial collapse etc. This fear is driving isolation, attempts of domination, increased control.
And the US is the most obvious example of this paranoid fear, with every announcement, action, reaction.
On the other hand the evolution of human society into a single, interconnected and interdependent network has basically been completed.
Most people accept today that we all exist in a global and integral system, in other words we are all sitting on the same boat.
The paranoid fear, distrust, active alienation, aggression against each other in such an integral system causes unprecedented tensions, threatening with unprecedented disaster.
It is like forgetting that drilling a hole on the wall of the boat sinks the whole boat regardless of where the hole is.
Contagion, domino, boomerang effect are very real phenomena in our world today.
People, especially present day leaders would need to take a pause, take a step back to fully understand, internalize the system we evolved into instead of relying on instinctive, mindless reflex reactions, "old school techniques".
If we do not do that pro-actively, "waking up the dawn" ourselves, the dawn will come in a very unpleasant, suffering way as we exist in a natural system with unbreakable laws.
More and more scientific studies are coming out proving that the Darwinian evolution principles were misunderstood or misinterpreted. The fittest to survive is not necessarily the strongest, greatest, but the ones that are capable of adapting to the mutually responsible and complementing connections prevalent in nature' system.
This we all need to facilitate and sustain mutual connections and build a new human society based on them above our inherent differences, rejections, hatred and fear.
We are not in a Hollywood movie with guaranteed happy ending, we are writing the ending of this movie and have to feel our vast responsibility accordingly.

"examining the content of a message from a suspect non-American source is less controversial"

Am I reading right? So the EU trade commission is 1) suspect and 2) not controversial
And this is only the tip of the iceberg. I wonder how many blackmailing happened already. How many important decisions are made on that base. If Barrosso is so keen to have the free trade agreement with the US, wouldn't it be because he's being gently pushed in the "right" direction ?
There is absolutely no democratic control over what can be accessed, by whom, and for which purpose. Oh yes ! I forgot the natural "trust" we have in our leaders.. who don't hesitate a second to impose their views against the majority, or convince the majority through manufacturing consent techniques..everyday more developed through the social networks.

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